Chronic neural recording has long been challenged by the inevitable immune response that can degrade the quality of the recorded signals over time. Implanted probes can damage the surrounding neurons, and glial scar formation due to the immune response may sometimes completely extinguish the functionality of implanted neural probes by encapsulating the recording electrodes. Certain implant characteristics may help reduce the immune response, such as high flexibility, small size, and large separation gaps between structures. However, some of these characteristics can also decrease the mechanical stiffness of the device and render the surgical process of implantation impractical—i.e., the device is too flexible to penetrate the desired tissue. Some methods require cutting an insertion path with a surgical tool prior to the insertion of flexible implants. This can severely damage the target tissue and risk deforming the flexible implant during implantation so that relative positioning of the recording sites may be distorted.